Sunday, May 14, 2017

Interview with Libby Hathorn

We are honoured to welcome Libby Hathorn to
the HNSA blog today. Libby is an award-winning author of more than sixty books
for children and young people. Translated into several languages and adapted
for stage and screen, her work has won honours in Australia, United States,
Great Britain and Holland. She wrote Way
Home illustrated by Greg Rogers which won the Kate Greenaway Award UK; her
first YA novel Thunderwith was made a
movie by Hallmark Hall of Fame; and her opera libretto ‘Grandma’s Shoes’ won
her an AWGIE.

She has also acted as Judge for NSW Premier’s Awards and for various poetry awards.

Libby has been an Australia Day Ambassador
for more than 20 years, visiting country towns to celebrate Australian
literature, especially poetry; and was an Ambassador for the National Year of
Reading in 2012. In 2003 she won the Centenary Medal; and in 2014 the Alice
Award given to an Australian woman writer ‘who has made a distinguished and
long term contribution to Australian

What is the inspiration for your current
book?

My current books are inextricably linked,
for out of my World War 1 novel, Eventual Poppy Day, based on the war record
of my mother’s brother Maurice who fought both at Gallipoli and at the Somme,
came Maurice’s brother Albert’s story in picturebook form A Soldier, a Dog and
a Boy.

Is there a particular theme you are
exploring in this book?

Strange to say it occurs to me that it’s a
theme I’ve been exploring most of my writing life and that is the importance of
kindness; the small acts of kindness that bind us. In Eventual Poppy Day
following my uncle’s war record linked to a contemporary boy Oliver, the need
to belong is also explored. And in A Soldier a Dog and a Boy, the importance of
a reaching out for connection.

Which period of history particularly
interests you? Why?

I am increasingly interested in Australian
colonial history and especially in female figures in history who up until
recently have gone largely unsung. For example,
in my novel Georgiana; Woman of Flowers I tell the story of Georgiana
Molloy, our first female botanist.

What resources do you use to research your
book?

Libraries are of course invaluable and I
like to dig and delve through archives of major ones and smaller local ones, eg
for my next novel Asylum there’s a treasure trove to be found in my local
library. Also art galleries can be surprisingly informative and I find I am
very visual and it helps to ‘see’ the times I am researching. I like to visit small
museums that have lovingly hoarded both records and realia that can contribute
so much to the detail in the storytelling. I like to visit the terrain and be in
the landscape if at all possible so for Eventual Poppy Day and A Soldier, a Dog
and a Boy I visited the brothers’ childhood home in the Kyogle Casino area and
travelled to the Western Front to the Somme and to the grave where 21 year old
Maurice lies. For my historical novel The Painter I spent many hours in the Van
Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, and for Georgiana, Woman of Flowers time in Western
Australia both in the Batty Library but also travelling to Augusta and the site
of her home there. Online resources are a miracle of information where a trail
can be followed so seemingly easily, and I am making increasing use of this
powerful resource.

What is more important to you: historical
authenticity or accuracy?

I think both are important but the whole
idea of an historical novel is that as the writer you can take certain
liberties with imagined sequences of events tying them in carefully as you can
to actual events.

Which character in your current book is
your favourite? Why?

Maurice the soldier and my uncle, who left
his dairy farming life in northern NSW for what he thought to be an adventure
and from family stories and accounts, actually ‘grew up’ through the horrors of
war on foreign soil, only to lose his life at Messines Ridges at 21 years old.
He is an ‘amalgam’ of the uncles I knew in my early life, laconic, often
humorous, hard-working, great story tellers and lovers of poetry and song, and
many of them dreamers at heart.

Are you a ‘plotter’ or a ‘pantser’?

My stories usually begin for me through
poetry, that is a line of poetry that repeats enough for me to write it down
for further thought. I’m a collector of phrases and ideas that in some way
involve deep emotion and the novel begins as a journey of discovery and once
undertaken, a plot seems to reveal itself.

How long does it generally take you to
write a book?

Even short texts like picture books take me
quite a time from inception – on average about a year. So Outside (soon to be
an opera with Elena Katz Chernin’s brilliant music) a poetic text was returned to over several
months as was A Soldier, a Dog and a Boy set in World War 1. My historical
novels such as Georgiana: Woman of Flowers and Eventual Poppy Day were written
in bursts over something like 4 years each.

A soldier far from home, a boy orphaned by war and the stray dog that brings them together.

A powerful story of the Somme illustrated by Phil Lesnie.

Which authors have influenced you?

Childhood influence were many and varied
from Australian May Gibbs and her bush fantasies to English Charles Dickens’
enthralling reads. Later, novels such as Miles Franklin’s My Brilliant Career
and Larry Durrell’s Alexandrine Quartet were influential. However, Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s remarkable novel, One
Hundred Years of Solitude was a life-changer for me as a writer.

What advice would you give an aspiring
author?

Without doubt aspiring writers should look
for the subject matter that is first and foremost meaningful to them, to the
extent months or even years of a life might well be spent in the writing. Then,
after the first flowering or let’s say inspired bit, there needs to be a
certain doggedness to bring the novel to fruition, that is completion. This may
mean sharing your work in a writer’s group or seeking advice from a trusted
few. But it does mean the solitary refining and refining until it can be ‘let
go’.

Tell us about your next book or work in
progress.

My next novel Asylum begins in 1880’s but
switches to the present time. Its first setting is in the Asylum for Destitute
Children in Randwick where there was a breakout of 40 boys which I am currently
researching mainly through Randwick’s Bowen Library archives. There was also
the death of a 9 year old boy who was beaten badly and this death resulted in a
parliamentary inquiry. It’s harrowing reading but fascinating especially since
the very grand convict built asylum still stands handsomely on part of the
Prince of Wales Hospital grounds to this day. There is a small graveyard within
the grounds with a long list of small children’s names. And as a writer I think
it important that at least some of its history should be told through fiction
based on fact.

Thank you so much for sharing your insights with us, Libby.

It is 1915, and 18 year old Maurice Roche
is serving in the Great War. A century later Maurice’s great great nephew, 18
year old Oliver is fighting his own war- one against himself. As Oliver reads
more of Maurice’s war diary, he discovers that despite living in different
times there are similarities; doubts heartbreak, and the finding courage to
face the darkest of times.

HNSA 2017 Conference

The HNSA 2017 Conference in Melbourne is
being held on 8-10 September 2017. Belinda Murrell will be appearing in the
following panel in Session Four on Sunday 10 September at 12.30-1.30 pm.

The Long Haul: Writing Successful Series and Multiple
Books

Juliet Marillier is the author of 6 historical fantasy
series and has a total of 21 books to her name. Libby Hathorn has
written over 60 Children and Young Adult (CYA) books which include historical
novels among them. Anne Gracie has written 3 series, 20 novels
and numerous novellas. How do these novelists maintain momentum? And what keeps
the spark of inspiration from being doused? Catherine Padmore
explores the stories behind these award winning authors.

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